A Rambling Rant on Writing.

As a result of having a story included in the anthology Undiscovered: Tales of Exploration, Adventure and Excitement, I now have an Author Profile page on Goodreads. And do you know what it says?

JJ’s fans

None yet.

Phillistines!

Tell you what, though. As I’ve edited my own bits of writing over the last few years, I’ve become ever more fastidious about the quality of the written word. I’ve also read a few top sellers – mostly the more ‘respectable’ end like Obsession and the Dark Materials trilogy. And I’ve been struck by how poor a lot of modern writing is. Never have I seen among this batch of books the sublime elegance of a Charlotte Bronte, the formal precision of a Charles Dickens, or the sparkling idiosyncrasy of a Flann O’Brien. Just clumpy sentences, wandering phrases and inaccurate clause relationships. There was a whole page in one of the Dark Materials trilogy that was in dire need of a complete re-write. I think Philip Pullman must have been coming down with swine flu the day he wrote it, and I assume his editor accidentally turned two pages at once.

And need I say that I make no claims for my own writing? I don’t need to. I’m not a recognised author, much less a professional one, and I make no money out of it. But I think it reasonable to expect of those who are and who do that they pay a little more attention to the craft element of their occupation.

Oh, and by the way, I loved the Dark Materials trilogy in general terms, in spite of some poor writing and the odd gaping hole in the plot, but I absolutely despised the ending. And that verb was chosen carefully. The brilliant and brave Lyra joined the bloody Establishment! All the good values come to nothing. What a waste. What a disappointment.